


Entwined

by idrilhadhafang



Series: The Broken Edge AUs [5]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, Evil Snoke, Force Bonds, Insomnia, M/M, Propaganda, Snoke Being a Dick, character death is han solo, mentions of atton rand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: The bond that Poe Dameron shares with his husband is both a curse and a blessing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Watching Helplessly
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

 

 Poe Dameron, every night, can still hear his husband over their bond.

It's one of those things that he can't turn off no matter what. One of those things that echoes over the bond even as he tries to get to sleep. Even the techniques that Doctor Gray taught him, based on something that the former Sith assassin Atton Rand came up with

_count sabaac cards, list hyperspace routes, things like that_

don't really apply to feelings of residual grief over the bond they share. It's times like this he wishes Ben had never opened up their bond. Just because of the pain that seems to spill over it.

And then there's the emptiness that Poe can't help but feel. He's getting through it, but he still feels Ben's absence too deeply.

Even as he tries to get to sleep after a mission, he feels a flare over the link they still have in place. A flare of pain. Ben...Ben is already grieving. Snoke doesn't need to necessarily toughen him through combat; after all, it had been the shock of killing his father that had ultimately defeated him during the duel.

 _Killing his father._ Poe still can't believe it. He loved you, would have done anything for you, and you killed him. How could you?

Then again, "how could you" could sum up a lot of what happened. What Ben did. All of it seems inconceivable, and yet here it is. It happened. Nothing anyone can say can change it.

Nothing you can say, nothing you can do.

Snoke's voice echoes like an unwanted third party across the link. _Do you remember what I told you the night you set out to Yavin IV, Kylo Ren?_

 _Yes_. Ben's voice. _My -- Han Solo and General Organa would kill me._

_Exactly. The Resistance are not compassionate beings. They are self-righteous, ruthless, cruel. They see us as nothing more than vermin to be exterminated. They have as little regard for the lives of our soldiers as one would garbage -- no, worse than that. They treat sentient life as less than garbage. And even if they hadn't killed you, they would make you wish they had. Leia certainly would._

Silence. _She would._ And the way Ben said it, it was almost as if he thought he was forcing himself to accept a horrible truth.

 _And so would Han Solo. So would Poe Dameron._ Silence. _Or he'd kill you. Killing is just as natural to him as breathing, is it not?_

Poe tenses. Of all the things for Snoke to accuse him of -- he's never enjoyed killing. He signed up in the Republic fleet because Snoke was terrorizing everyone, and Snoke has the audacity to call him a murderer?

Then again, Snoke isn't saying anything that beings like Matthew Travis haven't already said.

Ben is silent. Then, _He showed no hesitation when he destroyed the Starkiller planet, Supreme Leader._

 _Exactly. You can trust no one from the Resistance. They are_ animals _, Kylo Ren. You know it and I know it. They are animals that would not hesitate to kill civilians if they deemed them evil. Leia Organa-Solo sets that example well enough._

Poe turns over on his side in disgust. He's always known the First Order is a propaganda machine, but this...this is something else entirely. How can Snoke trick Ben in such a way, how can he say such awful lies?

 _Well_ , Poe thinks, _He is the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Who do you think shaped them in the first place?_

But knowing that aspect doesn't make things any better.

Poe closes his eyes, trying in vain to get to sleep.

\---

Poe is already grateful at least that no one else knows of Kylo Ren's true identity yet. He isn't ready to answer the questions that they're likely going to ask him: how were you married to this man? How are you still on our side? There are definitely some in the Resistance that can be as extremist as their First Order enemies; difference is they're not blowing up planets.

(That being said, Snoke saying they kill civilians is an outright lie, and a disgusting one at that)

Even heading to the mess hall, he wonders absently if what he's gone through last night sticks out all over him. Every lost hour of sleep, every struggle with it.

Jess smiles at him even as he sits down. "Hey, Poe," she says. "Rough night?"

"Yeah." And it's best off you don't know the half of it.

\---

The thing about the bond is that it at least allows Poe to catch up on what the First Order's doing. Snoke is still trying to rewrite what happened to make it look like Han was trying to trick Ben into being executed back at the Resistance camp (like Han would do that! Like General Organa would kill her own child!) and the more Poe listens, the angrier he gets, and rhe more he longs to reach out to Ben and comfort him.

After all, Poe...he hates what Ben's done. But he loves Ben still. He can do both. He can love the man doing it, still. Force knows he still does. He can love and hate in equal measure. It's not impossible.

Yes. He can love Ben.

It's at the end of a long day that Poe falls asleep, trying to count sabaac cards in his head.

\---

It's in the middle of the night that he wakes up in a cold sweat, his head ringing with a warning. The bond...that's how Snoke's found the Resistance base on D'Qar and now he's fully intending to annihilate it before they can get to Luke. Snoke has some sort of obsession with Luke not being found. Knowing Snoke, he would likely use ren to justify all this. As if some intangible force of fate justifies despicable actions.

Either way, Poe gets up. Everyone else is hurrying out of bed into battle, and Poe grabs his blaster and turns to BB-8. "Let's get out of here, buddy."

BB-8 whistles, and they head out, eager to fight their way to the exit no matter what.

 

 

 

 


End file.
